The use of hypodermic needles for medical treatment, such as drug administration and blood sampling, is one aspect of treatment in modern medicine. However, while these procedures promote health, the pain associated with hypodermic needle use often causes patients anxiety in seeking or continuing treatment involving hypodermic needles due to the pain associated with the act of injection. Thus, there would be an advantage in a nerve stimulation system operable to decrease pain associated with hypodermic needle injections.
One form of nerve stimulation to reduce pain is transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation. Certain embodiments of systems which can perform transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation include electrodes which deliver electrical stimulus to a targeted portion of a patient's body. In use, transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation operates by gate control theory. At its most basic, this theory is founded upon a principal of “gates” within the spinal cord which operate to control whether pain signals are transmitted to the brain. The “gates” are open when pain is experienced. Changing the nerve signal to the spinal cord using transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation alters the signal to the “gate”, so that the “gate” closes and no longer allows the pain signal to travel to the brain, so that pain is no longer perceived.